Vikings Pull a U-Turn with Key Player
At first, the news was looking a bit grim: Vikings CB1 Byron Murphy saw dead money hit the books as the contract’s void date passed.
Later on in the day, though, ESPN’s Dan Graziano provided the helpful update telling us otherwise: “Per a league source, the Vikings and CB Byron Murphy have agreed to push back the void date on his contract. Originally, the deal voided 23 days prior to the start of the league year (either today or tomorrow). Now, it’s the day before the start of the league year, which means Murphy cannot be franchised (since that date is past the deadline for teams to use the franchise tag).”
Vikings Pull a U-Turn with Byron Murphy
All along, people have been expecting Mr. Murphy to continue calling Minnesota home. He’s a great fit within Brian Flores’ defense and has articulated a desire to continue going to work at TCO Performance Center.
The issue, of course, is that his price tag has grown by a considerable amount. Prying Murphy away from Arizona meant kicking over just $17.5 million across a two-year deal. Good chance his next contract hits somewhere around $17.5 million on a per-year basis.
Last season, Byron Murphy put together career-best numbers. The corner had 81 tackles (career high), 6 tackles for loss (career high), 6 interceptions (career high), 14 passes defended (career high), and 1 forced fumble (tied for a career high). See a theme? Oh, and he made the Pro Bowl…for the first time. A career year, indeed.
Consider, as well, where Murphy put in his work. The corner played 1,060 regular season snaps and then picked up 53 more in the playoffs. Murphy turned those plays into 672 snaps as a wide corner, 325 snaps as a slot corner, 82 snaps in the box, 17 snaps along the defensive line, and 13 snaps at free safety.
Murphy isn’t the world’s largest corner — he’s 5’11” and weighs 190 pounds — and nor is he the world’s fastest corner — he ran a relatively modest 4.55 forty. Where he wins is with his great feet and soft hands, which is to say nothing of his timing for making a play on the ball.
By the time it was all said and done, PFF gave Murphy a 73.4 grade, good for 22nd overall among 116 corners. So, a low-end CB1. What does it cost to extend someone of that ability, especially since he’s only 27?
Hand the microphone to PFF and they’ll say that Murphy will come in around three years and $52 million, $17.33 million per season. Meanwhile, Spotrac suggests that things are a bit more ambitious for Murphy, arguing that a deal with an average of $22.1 million per season is more appropriate. Spotrac arrives at that number due to a projected deal coming in at four years and $88,379,420.
Truth be told, Minnesota will be looking for a deal that’s closer to the PFF number. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is a man on a mission when it comes to getting good value, so paying a non-elite corner top-level money doesn’t quite seem right. Instead, look for something in the high-teens for a per-year average.
Free agency gets started on Monday, March 10th.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference, PFF, and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on social media (Bluesky & Twitter). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.